KARACHI - Unlike the federal government, which believes in making healthcare unaffordable by increasing prices of medicines, PPP-led Sindh government provided quality healthcare facilities to the people by establishing NICVD’s Satellite Centers in different major cities of Sindh as well as Chest Pain Units at different places in Karachi.
These views were expressed by Adviser to CM Sindh on Information, Law and Anticorruption Barrister Murtaza Wahab while speaking at inauguration ceremony of 8th Chest Pain Unit of NICVD at Landhi no 3 ½ area here on Tuesday.
Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar, Executive Director NICVD Prof Nadeem Qamar, Amin Hashwani, eminent cardiologist Prof Nadeem Hassan Rizvi and other senior physicians and officials were also present on the occasion.
In the second phase of its Chest Pain Unit Program in Karachi, NICVD has established its 8th CPU in the Landhi area of the city to provide immediate relief and first aid in case of heart attack to the people of Landhi and adjoining areas so that their lives could be saved before they could reach to the main NICVD for further intervention, Murtaza Wahab explained and added that in a city of 20 million people where it takes hours in travelling from one place to other, these CPUs were a blessing for the Karachiites which saved thousands of lives during last one year.
“During last one year, seven Chest Pain Units of the NICVD saved over 5000 lives of people who were having heart attacks while over 150,000 people approached these CPUs who were given first aid and medical advice”, he said adding that NICVD was planning to establish eight more such CPUs in different places in the city so that more lives could be saved.
Murtaza Wahab maintained that after 18th amendment when NICVD was devolved to Sindh, provincial government expanded this facility to entire Sindh and now people were getting quality cardiac-care facilities closer to their homes. “Now instead of coming to Karachi, a resident of Ghotki goes to NICVD Sukkur for Angioplasty and bypass surgery, people living in and around Larkana avail cardiac treatment at their own city while people of Tharparkar avail quality cardiac treatment at Mithi instead of rushing to Karachi”, he informed. Information Advisor claimed that when NICVD was devolved to the provincial government, its annual budget was merely Rs. 700 which has now been enhanced to Rs. 14 billion rupees by the provincial government, adding that NICVD had now become a model institution where people from entire Pakistan were coming to get treatment of their heart ailments.
Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar thanked the Sindh government and Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for expanding state-of-the-art cardiac care facilities in entire Karachi and rest of the province, saying KMC was also part of the process for establishing Chest Pain Units at different areas of Karachi. “These CPUs are saving thousands of precious lives by providing immediate relief to patients after heart attacks and we are proud to be part of this program”, he added.
“NICVD is one of the best healthcare facility in Pakistan and we standby NICVD. KMC would do whatever possible to support and expansion of this institution,” Waseem Akhtar announced.
Executive Director NICVD Prof Nadeem Qamar said during last four years, NICVD had completely transformed into one of the best cardiac healthcare facilities of the world which treated over a million patients in a year, performed thousands of surgeries and angioplasties, carried out hundreds of complicated interventions and saved thousands of lives through its network spread over eight cities of the Sindh province.